CONFIRMED: Hydrating With Electrolytes is the #1 Most Critical Pre-Training Step For Triggering Your Body’s Fat-Burning and Muscle-Building “On-Switch”

The University of Utah reports: “Dehydration can actually make it harder to exercise! Dehydration impairs your body's ability to regulate heat, which causes your body temperature and heart rate to rise. This causes you to feel more tired during exercise, weakens your mental function, and affects your concentration(*2)

University of Connecticut: Also says, “When you have less fluid in your body, your heart has to work even harder to pump blood.”(*3)

Ultimately, making you feel like your cardiovascular system is working even harder (i.e., higher heart rate) than it should be.(*25) 

Furthermore, “Your body needs fluid to keep blood volume up to function. When your blood volume drops, your heart has to beat faster to try and circulate the same amount of blood throughout your body.”(*3)

Also, having good blood flow during your training is crucial for fat loss and muscle growth. (*6) Not only does it help us maintain a long-lasting muscle pump for boosted strength, but our blood also carries oxygen and other essential nutrients(*7) to the body parts we are training. Without sufficient oxygen and nutrients, it’s nearly impossible to train our body to its full potential and get the results we truly want.

And restricting blood flow to the body part that you are training is like cutting off gasoline to your car. And this can leave you feeling stranded without the energy and motivation you need to train at your peak levels
Now beyond not seeing results and sabotaging our workouts, training while dehydrated can lead to even more severe side effects that you want to avoid at all costs. (*8)

Again, when we are dehydrated, our heart has to work double or even three times harder to get the same amount of oxygen and nutrients to our body during training. And when our heart and body are overworked, this can lead to severe dehydration emergencies, such as heart complications, kidney failure, and seizures (*9).

Listen, the last thing you want to happen at the gym is to end up at the hospital. 

Now a few signs of extreme dehydration are fatigue, bloating, unmanageable weight gain, less strength, and even finding blood in your stool. (*28) These are all hidden signs you need these 3 crucial minerals in your lifestyle - in and out of the gym.

Before I break down to you what these 3 minerals are, you may be thinking...

I’ll just drink a ton of water to hydrate myself, 
Isn’t that enough?

NO, that is not enough! Drinking too much water without these 3 crucial minerals can cause you to suffer from hyponatremia. Hyponatremia is a dangerous fluid-electrolyte disorder where your blood becomes diluted and causes your organs, especially the brain, not to function properly. This disorder causes a sudden loss of energy, drowsiness, fatigue, and even muscle weakness(*10). 

And the mayo clinic reports that ”Hyponatremia occurs when the concentration of sodium in your blood is abnormally low. Sodium is an electrolyte, and it helps regulate the amount of water that's in and around your cells.

Now the problem with drinking too much water is it causes the sodium in your body to become diluted. When this happens, your body's water levels rise, and your cells begin to swell. This swelling can cause many health problems, from mild to life-threatening.”(*10)

Furthermore, it ruins our ability to train with maximum effort and ultimately prevents us from seeing the real results we seek.

Now it’s common for most people to think this won’t happen to them. But that is also wrong. Hyponatremia is actually very common in mild and severe forms - especially with athletes and folks who are new to working out regularly.

Now sodium is 1 of the 3 essential minerals we should be combining with our water intake to optimize the hydration balance in our body, muscles, and cells.  In turn, this speeds up our metabolism, energy levels and makes it so much easier to see changes in our body.

Now, most pre-workout drinks claim to boost our energy levels. But in reality, they actually do little to nothing to help you use your body’s “real energy source - which is stored by fat.”

But most pre-workout supplements do not help your body trigger fat burn; instead, they fill it with an insane amount of caffeine and other stimulants.

Did you know that just one tiny serving from a pre-workout supplement can be equivalent to drinking 3 cups of coffee at the same time? (*11) And caffeine works by constricting your blood vessels and making your heart work harder. This blood restriction leads to high blood pressure(*12), leading to an increased heart rate. And this increased heart rate is how stimulants trick our nervous system into thinking we have more energy. 

But the truth is, it's not a real source of energy. We are merely tricking and hurting our nervous and circulatory systems.  

Furthermore, caffeine increases cortisol production(*13) (the master fat-storing hormone), which eats away at our muscles.

Now, always remember, muscle gives you strength and shapes your body. Plus, the amount of muscle we carry also dictates how many calories your body will burn. And losing even a few pounds of muscle can slow down your fitness and weight loss goal dramatically.

Also, caffeine causes your body to lose vital fluids - the complete opposite of what we want. Have you ever drank coffee and immediately you need to use the restroom? Well, caffeine is a diuretic - which means it helps release fluids from the body(*14). So it's counterintuitive to drink caffeine if you're trying to stay hydrated for a results-driving training session.

Besides, since many of us may only have time to train at night, taking in massive amounts of caffeine can keep you up and cause you to lose valuable deep recovery sleep. And a lack of rest leaves our body fatigued, less effective (*15), extends muscle soreness, and painful muscle cramps(*26). It ultimately hinders your body from
burning fat, building muscle, and even sabotages your ability to train effectively for your next workout.

Now I’m not saying coffee has zero benefits, but I suggest limiting it to just one or two cups a day. Also, make sure to leave it plain and black to avoid sugar and extra added calories. Lastly, I would strongly side against drinking at night if you are training in the evening.

BUT, what about those sports drinks we see top athletes use during sporting events… 
They must be good, right?

NOPE! As I mentioned, these drinks may seem healthy on the surface, but if you look closer, you will see that they are packed with sugar! (*16) And consuming an excess amount of sugar may cancel the fat-burning efforts you put in during your training session. So it’s definitely not what you should drink if you want to lose weight.

But why do athletes drink them?

Well, athletes actually want the sugar since they won't eat for hours during their game. It’s important to realize that athletes do not play professional sports to lose weight or build muscle. They are purely consuming sports drinks for their extra calories and performance purposes.

BUT for everyday folks like us, who are training for weight loss and muscle toning, I recommend avoiding sugar before and during your workout.

Bottom line: The sugar-packed electrolyte sports drinks that we see athletes drinking are mainly for sports performance purposes. The fact is, many drinks we see in stores are just a glorified mix of sugar and water.

 
Furthermore, most sports drinks contain only sodium and miss the other two key hydration minerals our body needs. And without those other added minerals, sodium won’t be able to work effectively. And that leads yous to problem #3.

Now research shows that 75 percent of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (*17) And this could be connected to why 95% of all people don’t see results from their training and even gain more weight back than when they started. (*18) 

That’s why so many nutritionists and health experts, including me, all agree that consuming the 3 key electrolyte minerals, such as Sodium along with Potassium and Magnesium, at the same time is as important as it gets.

HOWEVER, there’s a BIG PROBLEM that so many hard-working people, just like you are unaware of and need to know.

Most sports drinks, pre-workout, and even other “so-called” Electrolyte formulas available in the fitness industry are pretty much worthless.  It’s because they’re missing the needed dosage of potassium and magnesium, which sodium needs to work fully.

From My Nutritional Experience, Here are the 
Top 3 Reasons Why You Must Stack Sodium, Potassium, and Magnesium Together

To Truly and Effectively hydrate your body And accelerate your results.

1.     Electrolytes are minerals that carry an electric charge when dissolved in body fluids such as blood. (*27) They manage functions to produce energy, keep your body hydrated, send clear signals from the body to the brain, and even control muscle contractions.  Unfortunately, being depleted of one or all three of these minerals can slow down your body’s vital functions. These functions include your metabolism, muscle recovery, and even regulating your heartbeat. Making the body less efficient and holding you back from getting the maximum training results you need to achieve your goals.

2.     Sodium is the main electrolyte mineral needed for hydrating the body, but taking sodium alone or too much of it without potassium may be harmful to your body.
The CDC reports that “a person can get high blood pressure by consuming too much sodium and not enough potassium. (*19) 

As the 3rd most abundant mineral in the body - potassium regulates fluids and balances out the amount of water that sodium helps our body retain. (*20) And with a perfect balance of liquids in the body, our cells can perform at their max efficiency. In turn, helping us improve our muscle contraction, muscle pump, and improve the signals that our brains send to our body for burning stored belly fat.